EVGA GeForce GTX 295 SLI Video Card Review

A Closer Look At The EVGA GeForce GTX 295

The GeForce GTX 295 uses a dual-PCB design with an improved cooling solution over that of the older GeForce 9800 GX2. The new heatsink and fan solution is capable of dissipating more than the 289 Watts of power that this card puts out, but NVIDIA is not saying what the limit of the cooler is at this point in time. They did inform us that this new cooler is approximately a 46% improvement over the cooling solution used in the GeForce 9800 GX2. The picture above shows the single cooling fan that is located between the two PCB’s that is in charge of cooling both cores and all the memory ICs.

The air from the cooling fan blows air across the inside of the two PCB’s and out the rear and top of the card. The picture above gives you a visual reference for where the hot air goes. This picture also shows the rear output connectors on the GeForce GTX 295, which are a pair of dual-link DVI-I connectors and a single HDMI connector. All cards based off the GeForce GTX 295 reference design come with a pair of lights that help alert you to the status of the card. A blue light lets you know you have the proper power connections attached and a green light indicates that at least one display was correctly attached. If things light up red then you have a problem and it is usually a sign that a power connector is unplugged.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 295 video card requires a 680 Watt or greater power supplit with a minimum of 46 Amps on the +12V rail. It also requires that the power supply has one 6-pin PCI Express power connector and an 8-pin PCI Express power connector for proper connection. The EVGA GeForce GTX 295 comes with an adapter that converts two 6-pin PCIe connectors to one 8-pin PCIe connection, but it is only for temporary use and is not a long term solution. The max board power (TDP) per card is 289 Watts. Next to the 6-pin PCIe power connector is the 2-pin Toslink digital audio cable header that is used to bring the on-board audio to the video card in order for it to be outputted through the HDMI connection on the card.

The GeForce GTX 295 supports QuadSLI technology for the ultimate high-end gaming performance, so NVIDIA included an SLI header in order to connect the two cards together with the SLI bridge connector. NVIDIA has been trying their best to offer great SLI scaling on all the major PC game titles before or on the day of launch, so SLI is getting as time goes on. Unlike the GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 the GeForce GTX 295 has just one header since pairing it with an identical card would be QuadSLI. It is impossible to pair more than two of these together so 3-way SLI for HexadSLI is out of the question for now.

The last interesting thing we noted with the EVGA GeForce GTX 295 was this little heat warning sticker that is located on the back of the card. I guess things get a bit warm on the back and they put this nice little sticker on things to let you know that.